Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd. jumped to to
its highest since late 2011 after its chief executive officer
said the BlackBerry maker is considering strategic options
including a sale of its hardware production unit.

Possibilities include “the sale of hardware production as
well as licensing of our software,” CEO Thorsten Heins was
reported as saying in an interview with German newspaper Die
Welt. Nick Manning, a spokesman for the Waterloo, Ontario-based
company, said those options are examples that Heins cited among
the possibilities under consideration in a strategic review.

The company hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital
Markets in May to help it evaluate options. While Heins hasn’t
ruled out a sale of the company, he has said RIM’s focus is on
exploring strategic partnerships or software licencing deals. On
Jan. 30, there will be the debut of the new BlackBerry 10
devices that RIM is counting on to reverse a sales slide and
help it win back market share lost to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and
handsets that run Google Inc.’s Android software.

RIM rose 14 percent to C$17.87 at 2:36 p.m. in Toronto
after climbing as high as C$18.49 earlier in the day, the
highest since Dec. 1, 2011.

The stock has more than doubled since late September on
growing optimism for BlackBerry 10’s prospects. RIM isn’t
trading today in New York because of a public holiday.

The strategic review continues “but there is no reason for
us to rush to decide,” Heins was quoted as saying by Die Welt.
“First and foremost, it’s important to bring BlackBerry 10
successfully to market.”